As an extension of my own research and consulting on big data project planning and management, I wanted to improve my understanding of how data governance and program management practices impact how medical and health data are used.

To appreciate some of the implications of the recent proposal by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) to make consideration of journal article acceptance contingent upon the author’s agreement to share de-identified clinical trial data with other researchers, as reported by NPR, some context is appropriate.

Marketing, customer communications, and inside-the-firewall collaboration are not the only processes subject to "disruption" by social media and social networking. The worlds of research, scholarly communication, librarianship, and publishing are also being impacted, and not just by Google.